The Information Technology 100
4
Google
As Google prepared for an initial public offering last August, the search kingpin was suddenly the company that could do no right. Regulators were chagrined by a Playboy magazine interview that hit during Google's quiet period, while investors were cool to the company’s auction-style sale of IPO shares. At the last minute, Google slashed its asking price to $85 per share.
Since then, the company has blown away even its most sanguine supporters. Its search offering continues to gain popularity, despite the best efforts of rivals Yahoo! and Microsoft. And Google has rolled out several new interesting features, from satellite-image maps to the ability to search the texts of millions of books. With sales up 118% in 2004 to $3.2 billion, the company's stock has responded in kind, jumping 213% to $266, as of May 27.
Company Info
| STOCK INFO | GOOG |
| Revenues* | $3.8 BILLION
|
| Revenue Growth | 103.0%
|
| Return on Equity | 20.6%
|
| Total Return | 226.2%†
|
| Profits* | $704.3 MILLION
|
| Industry | INTERNET COMPANIES
|
| CORPORATE WEB SITE
|
All figures are for the most recent available 12 months.
* Latest available data for the 12-month period ended Dec. 31, Jan. 31, Feb. 29, Mar. 31, or Apr. 30. For companies that do not report quarterly, the most recent annual data were used.
† Total return is based on less than one year of data because IPO has occurred since May 30, 2004.
Data provided by Standard & Poor's Compustat, BusinessWeek
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Company Snapshot
Google, Inc. provides Web search and online advertising services on the Internet. It offers advertising solutions and global Internet search solutions through its Web site, and intranet solutions via an enterprise search appliance. The company’s products and services include Google.com, Google AdWords, Google AdSense, and Google Search Appliance. Its Google AdWords program is used by advertisers to promote their products and services on the Web with targeted advertising. The company’s Google AdSense program is used by the third-party Web sites to deliver ads relevant to the content on their sites. It also provides enterprise search appliances to search corporate systems through the Google Search Appliance. In addition, the company provides e-mail services through Gmail, which offers a gigabyte of free storage for each user along with e-mail search capabilities and relevant advertising. Google was co-founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998, and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.
No. of Employees
3,021
Data provided by 
Eric E. Schmidt
Bio
Eric E. Schmidt Ph.D. has been Chief Executive Officer of Google Inc., a provider of Internet search technology, since July 2001. Schmidt served as Chairman of Board of Google Inc. from March 2001 until April 2004. From April 1997 to July 2001, Schmidt served as the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Novell Inc., and a software supplier for large networks. From 1983 to March 1997, Schmidt held various positions at Sun Microsystems Inc., including Chief Technology Officer, Corporate Executive Officer; President, Sun Technology Enterprises; Vice President, General Systems Group; and Vice President and General Manager, Software Products division. Prior to joining Sun, Schmidt was a member of the research staff at the Computer Science Lab at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). He also held positions at Bell Laboratories and Zilog Inc. He has been Director of Siebel Systems Inc., since May 1996. Schmidt serves as a Director of Google Inc. and has been Chairman of the Executive Committee since April 2004. He received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley.
AGE: 49
Titles
Chairman of the Executive Committee, Chief Executive Officer and Director
Total Compensation*
$85,608
Total Value of Options**
$0
Degrees Held
Princeton University (BS), University of California Berkeley (MS, PhD)
* Latest available fiscal year
** The sum of the net value of options exercised and held in the latest available fiscal year
Key Executives
Eric Schmidt, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Omid Kordestani, Wayne Rosing, David C. Drummond, George Reyes, Jonathan J. Rosenberg, Shona L. Brown
Board Members
Eric Schmidt, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, L. John Doerr, John L. Hennessy, Arthur D. Levinson, Michael Moritz, Paul S. Otellini, K. Ram Shriram
